Schoharie County, New York Genealogical Records Information

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Schoharie County History and Information

Schoharie County Facts

Schoharie County was created in 1795 and formed from Albany and Otsego Counties. Schoharie County was named for a Mohawk word meaning "floating driftwood." and the County Seat is Schoharie. See also Extended History for more historical details.

The Schoharie County Courthouse is located at PO Box 429, Schoharie , NY 12157; 518-295-8347 and the Official County Website is located at http://www.schohariecounty-ny.gov/.

Schoharie County Borders Montgomery County (North), Schenectady County (Northeast), Albany County (East), Greene County (Southeast), Delaware County (Southwest), Otsego County (West) .

Schoharie County Municipalities: Blenheim (town), Broome (town), Carlisle (town), Cobleskill (village), Cobleskill (town), Conesville (town), Esperance (town), Esperance (village), Fulton (town), Gilboa (town), Jefferson (town), Middleburgh (village), Middleburgh (town), Richmondville (village), Richmondville (town), Schoharie (town), Schoharie (village), Seward (town), Sharon Springs (village), Sharon (town), Summit (town), Wright (town) . Town Clerks are responsible for vast amounts of local information from deeds, property transfers, and genealogical materials. Research on place and road names, the history of property transfers and much more are available through your Town Clerk. They are a tremendous resources.

Schoharie County, New York History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Schoharie County Court Records

See Also New York Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Schoharie County Clerk has Land & Court Records from 1795 and is located at County Office Building, Room 130, 284 Main Street Schoharie, NY 12157; Phone: 518-295-8316/8317 .
The county clerk is the keeper of most civil and criminal trial court records for Supreme Court and County Court, naturalizations, marriages (1908–35), censuses (Some county clerks' offices hold duplicate copies of some of the State censuses taken periodically between 1825 and 1925 and copies of the federal census), as well as deeds and mortgages.

Land conveyances (deeds and mortgages) are recorded in the county clerks' offices or in the New York City Register's Office. Recording of deeds became mandatory statewide in 1840. Before that many deeds were not recorded.
Marriages Prior to 1784 couples intending to marry were required to obtain licenses from and file bonds with the provincial secretary, if the impending marriage was not announced in a church. These Marriage Bonds were mostly destroyed in the 1911 Capitol fire. Published abstracts are available in Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the secretary of the province of New York, previous to 1784. (Albany: 1860; repr. with supplements 1984); and in New York Marriage Bonds, 1753-1783, comp. Kenneth Scott (New York: 1972).
Naturalization records are created by the Federal and State courts. State court naturalization records generally remain in custody of the county clerks. Older Federal court naturalization records have been transferred to the National Archives. Photocopies of naturalization documents and indexes for New York City for the period 1792-1906 (both Federal and State courts) are held by the National Archives--Northeast Region, 201 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014.

Schoharie County Surrogate Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1795 and is located at Courthouse, 290 Main Street, Mailing Address - P.O. Box 669, Schoharie, N.Y. 12157; (518) 295-8387 .
The Surrogate's Court in each county generally has records dating back to the establishment of the county or 1787, whichever was later. Record keeping was systematized by an 1830 statute. Surrogate's Courts maintain records of wills, letters testamentary, letters of administration, orders and decrees, and appointments of guardians; and filed papers, including original wills, petitions for probate (gives date of death and lists next of kin), performance bonds, property inventories (seldom found after ca. 1900), administrator's or executor's accountings, etc. Surrogate's Courts create comprehensive indexes to records and files.

In recent decades many courts have ceased recording documents in books and substituted microfilm recording. Some courts have disposed of old property inventories, which have no continuing legal value. Most Surrogate's Court records are retained permanently because they may document title to real property or the legal status of individuals. Surrogate's Court records statewide occupy over 200,000 cubic feet, with over half a million record retrievals yearly. The court is authorized to charge substantial fees for records searches conducted by court staff. Prior to that time most estates were handled in New York City, the capital until 1797. Before 1787, some wills were recorded in the counties and occasionally in town records.

Click Here to Search New York Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Schoharie County Historian is located at PO Box 449, Middleburgh, NY 12122 .In New York State, every municipality (town, city, village, county) must have an appointed historian. Most of the towns have their own historians as well and each can be contacted. A county historian may be appointed for each county, check for availability.

Below is a list of online resources for Schoharie County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Schoharie County Court Records by clicking the link below:

New York Wills, 1626-1836: This database is a collection of New York citizens' wills from 1626 to 1836 that were recorded in the office of the clerk of the court of appeals, of the county clerk of Albany and of the secretary of state.
Soundex Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906: NARA M1674. The Soundex index to naturalization petitions filed in federal, state, and local courts in New York City, including New York, Kings, Queens and Richmond counties, 1792-1906.
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Jul 1865-Sep 1906: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from July 1865 through September 1906
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1906-Nov 1925: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from October 1907 through November 1925.
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865-1957: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from November 1925 through December 1957.
>Alphabetical Index to Declarations of Intention of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1917-1950: NARA M1675. Alphabetical Index to Declarations of Intention of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1917-1950
Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court [and Circuit Court] for the Southern District of New York, 1824-1941: NARA M1676. Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1824-1941.
Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalizations of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, 1907-1966: NARA M1677. Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalizations of the US District Court for the Western District of New York, 1907-1966
Schoharie County, New York Court Books at Amazon.com
New York Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Schoharie County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Scattered town and precinct tax records for a few years in the 1770s and 1780s and nearly complete lists for the whole state, 1799-1804, are at the New York State Archives, although for the latter period the surviving 1804 rolls cover only delinquent taxes of nonresidents. New York City tax records are at the Municipal Archives. Some early assessment rolls have been published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, such as those for New York City, 1730, in volume 95; New Rochelle, 1767, in volume 107; and Ulster County, 1709-21, in volume 62. See also volumes 43-44 of the New-York Historical Society's Collections for New York City assessments 1695-99. A few counties such as Ontario have retained their early tax records, but most do not have them until about 1850 or even later. Many old tax lists are to be found in manuscript collections. Dutchess County is fortunate to have a long series of eighteenth century tax records. Some of the 1798 U.S. Direct Tax records survive for New York.

Below is a list of online resources for Schoharie County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Schoharie County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Schoharie County, New York Tax Books at Amazon.com

Schoharie County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other New York Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Schoharie County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Schoharie County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Schoharie Co Historical Society, 145 Fort Road, Schoharie NY 12157
County Historian Office, PO Box 732 Middleburgh NY 12122
Local New York Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
New York State Archives and Records Administration, The State Education Department, Cultural Education Center, 11th Floor; Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12230; (518) 474-8955, [EMAIL]
Referred to here as the New York State Archives for brevity, it was the last such archives to be established in the United States. It houses land and court records, military and tax records, New York state vital records indexes, pre-settlement survey maps, and legislative records.
New York State Library, Cultural Education Center, 7th Floor, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12230; The state library has a large collection of published and manuscript material on New York, including genealogies and local histories, federal and state censuses, city directories, and periodicals. It is also one of the two depositories for the State of New York DAR collection.
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 122 East 58^th Street, New York, New York 10022-1939; 212-755-8532, Fax: 212-754-4218; A private society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society publishes the NYG&B Newsletter and a quarterly, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Its library holds much New York State and related material, both for New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. For New York there are censuses, federal and state; a large manuscript collection of church, cemetery, Bible, and other records; and an extensive amount of published family and local histories. Nonmembers can use the library for a small fee, but only members have access to the stacks, manuscripts, and microforms. The library provides a list of area researchers.
New York State Historical Association, West Lake Road, P.O. Box 800, Cooperstown, New York, 13326-0800
National Archives--Northeast Region, 201 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014.
New York Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
New York Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Schoharie County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search New York Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Schoharie County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Schoharie County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Many church records, mostly early and particularly for Long Island, New York City, and the Hudson River Valley, have been published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record with a large collection of unpublished records maintained by the New York. Particularly useful as vital records substitutes among the surviving New York church records are those of the Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, and Quaker groups.

The largest number of New York cemetery records (the bulk of which are actually transcriptions of cemetery marker inscriptions) is found in the multivolume collection of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the State of New York, Church, and Town Records, located at the New York State Library, the New York Public Library, and the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. Scattered volumes are found in other libraries including many local libraries in the area in which a particular cemetery is located.

Below is a list of online resources for Schoharie County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Schoharie County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of New York obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a New York newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from New York .
FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL CEMETERY TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA
Schoharie County, New York Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Schoharie County, New York Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search New York Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Schoharie County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Schoharie County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Schoharie County, New York Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

To but few of the counties of New York were the names given of those who first inhabited the State. Schoharie is one of the exceptions, being titled after one of the tribes of the Mohawks who were the first owners of its acres. The same name is applied to a County, township and a stream, but what it means is still in doubt. It is usually explained as meaning "Driftwood" or "Drift" because near the present village of Middleburgh two rivulets pour into the creek, creating a swirl which makes the driftwood accumulate until at times it is continuous from bank to bank. Others explain the word as meaning simply "to cross over," or "to meet"; it is also said to be a corrupted form of the Indian for "The Great Jampile" a natural bridge formed by drift wood. Whatever the name in the Iroquois, Schoharie was designated as a "Bear" village, the Bear family of the Mohawks having their castle near Canajoharie. The word Schoharie is spelled seventeen different ways in early documents so there is some excuse for doubt as to its meaning.

Just what tribe of Indians inhabited the Schoharie Valley before white families located here is a matter of conjecture, but there is evidence that the district was the hunting and fishing ground of the aborigines long before there was any definite settlement. Some Indian trails have been traced through the County, coming from such distant points as the Hudson by way of Catskill Creek, from Albany, from Schenectady, and extending on through the Genesee Valley to Niagara. These trails were of great assistance to the white races who followed the Indian, for the Germans used them to reach their promised land, and to get to other settlements to the north and east; Johnson and Brant availed themselves of these routes in their raids; and the great warway of the Indians in the Revolution was by the Niagara trail. One of the reasons for Sullivan's expedition against the tribes of the Genesee Valley was to make difficult or impossible the use of these routes for attack on the white settlements.

The Dutch as the first settlers of the State are thought rightly, no doubt, to be responsible for the settlement of Schoharie. They had pushed their way as far as Schenectady at a very early date; their English successors also sought to get possession of these Indian lands. The first one reads of Schoharie is in petitions sent to Governor Dongan from 1682 to 1688, when permission was desired to purchase from the Indians 500 acres in a tract called Schoharie. In 1694 Colonel Nicholas Bayard obtained a license to buy 4,000 acres in the valley of Schoharie Creek in the Indian fields called Teaondaroga near the mouth of the stream. Bayard did not like the land he bought, neither did the Indians like the sale, with the result that Bayard lost both his lands and the ninety-six dollars he had paid.

Meanwhile those who were to be the first pioneers of the district had arrived in this country. While there were several nationalities represented among the early settlers of Schoharie, the German, Dutch, and the New Englander, it was by the first that this region was first occupied in numbers. The Dutch had been purchasers of Indian land rather than developers of it; the "Yankee" came only just before, and in larger numbers, after the Revolution. As a result of the King William and Queen Anne's wars abroad there was a great migration from the palatinate on the banks of the Rhine to other countries including, indirectly, this. In 171O the first of these Palatinates arrived in New York, followed by other groups of them in the next few years. They had been given to understand that they were to receive lands and help in the settlement of them, but were disagreeably disappointed when they were made to work out their passage and other expenses by making tar, pitch and turpentine from the northern pine, which was a rather impossible task since it is poor in resinous material.

The plan was a failure from the standpoint of both parties, for the Palatines were disheartened and wanted to escape from what was only a new bondage, and the experiment was expensive to the State since there was no probability of their ever being able to pay for their sustenance, and no possibility of ever paying for the things which had gone before. Finally they were told that they might, and must, shift for themselves. With gladness they promptly sent a deputation of their men to the "Schorie" of which they had been told. Upon a favorable report being made, and well it might, for the committee had seen the Schoharie in the early fall, when the gentle slopes and the fertile lowlands were clothed with rich verdure, the Indians too, receiving them graciously and promptly giving them permission to come and settle, plans were made to go to this new land at once. One group of fifty went that winter; another followed in the spring of 1713.

Where these and the other Palatines located in Schoharie will be shown in the accounts of the settlement of the various towns. They were ill-fitted to pioneer, being without cattle, horses, tools or experience. They had to imitate the Indian in the making of tools, and even the seed they planted had to be secured from the Aborigines. Splitting into sections which gathered around their leading man, they established seven "dorfs" or small villages along the Schoharie from the present site of Little Schoharie to Cobleskill Creek on the north.

The Palatines had been careless in not securing legal patents to the land they settled and trouble followed when those holding grants from the Governor came to take permanent possession of their fields. In 1722 there were 800 Germans in the valley, but a third of these in that year left with Garlock their leader and moved higher up the Mohawk Valley; other leaders took another third and went south to Pennsylvania.

The colonists of the valley had always managed to retain amicable relations with the Indians, even during the French and Indian War. This in a measure pleased those in authority; for one of the reasons for being so willing to send the Palatines to the frontier was that they might act as a buffer between them and the tribes. But a change was taking place among the Aborigines. They saw that the whites were crowding them out of their hunting grounds and homes. The other tribes were aligning themselves with the English who were getting at odds with the colonies; certain Englishmen had great influence with them, such as William Johns Johnson and Brant, the half-breed brother of the wife of Sir William. And they wanted the wealth they had failed to secure by the selling of their lands. All these things conspired to arouse their enmity against those with whom they had so long been friends.

In preparation for the trouble which seemed inevitable, a committee was appointed, the citizens armed, and a series of forts, three in the valley, were erected. During the Revolution raid after raid was made on the valley, some of these reaching the importance of battles. And while these did not settle anything, except the unprotected condition of those who peopled the frontiers of the land, they so depleted the Schoharie Valley that only when the war was over and the hosts of the ex-soldiers of New England and New York came and located, could it be said that the district was populated. What, after all, was there about this one of the many valleys of New York that so persistently drew settlers in the face of hardship and war? The committee of the Palatines were agreed as to its desirability, the reports of Sullivan's men were approving, even the hardheaded Yankees left their more finished towns and hewed out for themselves newer ones.

Schoharie is a hilly country; its ridges seeming to be part of the Catskills, reaching a height of 2,000 feet in certain localities, the land being higher to the west. There are many streams, flowing in so many different directions that the waters of the County reach the Mohawk, Hudson, Delaware and the Susquehanna. Lakes of any size are few, Summit and Utsyantha being those of the most importance. The natural curiosities of the County, such as caves, falls, hidden rivers, mineral springs, are a source of wonder and interest to the visitor. Probably it was just the inhabitableness of the region that brought to it so many of the pioneers of the State. The flats along the streams are rich, the hillsides are productive, and even the tops of the hills are softly rounded and easily tilled; there is little waste land in Schoharie County.

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